The invention relates to a method and a system utilizing an inflatable flying body for rescuing a person from a great height in an emergency, for example in the event of a fire or the like in a high-rise building, a tower, or even an aircraft.
It has not been possible in practice to provide an automatic and self-contained rescue system for rescuing persons who are trapped in a dangerous situation at a great height, for example in a fire in a high-rise building, or even in an aircraft in an emergency situation. While it may be possible to use a typical parachute in some emergency situations, for enabling the endangered person to descend to the ground, it must be considered that the use of a parachute requires considerable instruction, training, and prior practice in order to ensure that a reliable and safe descent can be achieved. However, a method and system for rescuing persons from a great height in an emergency situation must be suitable for rescuing persons who do not have any special training or skills. Therefore, the use of a parachute or the like is not practically suitable for rescuing ordinary persons in such emergency situations.
Furthermore, it has been found in practice, especially in connection with an evacuation of a high-rise building which is on fire or subject to other emergency conditions, that even persons who are trained and experienced in parachuting under good conditions are not able to execute a safe parachute jump in such an emergency situation. For example, the stress of the situation can interfere with the person""s orderly conduct of the necessary procedures for carrying out the parachute jump. Moreover, a fire-induced suction effect, or even just a natural updraft along the building can make it impossible to properly deploy and control the parachute and has a tendency to violently swing the parachute and the suspended person into the sidewall of the building. Also, the heat of the fire may destroy a parachute canopy or injure the suspended parachutist especially if it is necessary to jump or descend directly through flames. As a further difficulty, the ground around the base of the building may not be suitable for making a safe parachute landing. For these reasons, a parachute is not a suitable means of emergency rescue descent from a burning building or the like, even for a person who is an experienced parachutist.
In view of the above, it is an object of the invention to provide a system and method for rescuing unskilled and untrained ordinary persons from an emergency situation at a great height. It is a further object of the invention to provide an apparatus that is automatically deployable once it is actuated, and that automatically orients itself for a safe descent regardless of the orientation of its deployment. Yet another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus that at least partially encloses and shields a person from fire and debris and the like, provides aerodynamic braking drag for a controlled slow descent, and provides pneumatic cushioning and shock damping of the landing impact force, to achieve a safe, survivable landing without requiring any special landing area on the ground and without requiring any special landing skills or efforts by the person. A further object of the invention is to enable the safe descent of any sort of payload or valuable cargo separately from a person. Still another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus that safely and automatically ejects a person from a building or the like, without requiring the person to consciously jump from the building for being rescued. The invention further aims to avoid or overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, and to achieve additional advantages, as apparent from the present specification.
The above objects have been achieved according to the invention in an unfoldable, inflatable, and thus deployable flying body having a folded or stowed configuration as well as an inflated deployed configuration. In the inflated deployed configuration, the apparatus generally forms a conical hollow body, substantially similar in shape to a badminton shuttlecock. This conical hollow body includes a nose structure having an inflatable central pneumatic damping body or airbag that forms the bottom conical point or nose of the hollow body, an inflatable toroidal outer stabilizing ring that forms the open larger end at the top of the hollow body, a plurality of inflatable spoke struts extending conically between the nose structure and the outer stabilizing ring, and a cover skin arranged over at least the spoke struts to form an outer covering or sheath skin of the conical hollow body. A receiver or load support element, e.g. a load bearing frame, is secured to or incorporated in the nose structure on top of the pneumatic damping body, e.g. on an upper surface thereof facing toward the outer upper stabilizing ring. At least one gas generator is provided for inflating the inflatable components. Preferably, separate gas generators are provided for inflating the pneumatic damping body on the one hand, and the inflatable spoke struts and stabilizing ring on the other hand.
Throughout this disclosure, directional terms such as xe2x80x9cupperxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9clowerxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cabovexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cbelowxe2x80x9d, etc. are to be understood with respect to the normal flying descent attitude in the deployed condition of the apparatus, with the point or narrow nose end of the conical hollow body being pointed downward.
In the initial uninflated, stowed condition, the pneumatic damping body, the spoke struts, and the outer stabilizing ring are uninflated, and are folded together with the cover skin into a compact package, e.g. in the form of a self-contained backpack. The load support element such as the load bearing frame can form a backpack frame that is secured onto the back of a person using securing elements such as straps with a chest buckle or the like. Then, to deploy the apparatus into the abovementioned deployed condition, the one or more gas generators are manually actuated to inflate the pneumatic damping body, the spoke struts, and the outer stabilizing ring to a slight over-pressure so as to maintain the inflated deployed condition of the apparatus with a somewhat rigid, non-collapsing, form-stable shape. The load bearing frame remains secured to the person""s back as the apparatus is inflated and thereby deployed, so that the person suddenly finds himself or herself strapped securely to the load bearing frame on top of the pneumatic damping body within the hollow interior space of the conical hollow body surrounded by the conical walls formed by the spoke struts, the cover skin, and the outer stabilizing ring.
The inflation and deployment process should be very rapid, for example the entire time required for strapping on the folded and stowed apparatus in the backpack configuration, actuating the gas generators, and then fully inflating the hollow conical body should not exceed 10 seconds. The actual inflation of the inflatable components itself is rather rapid in an explosive manner, e.g. in less than 1 second or particularly in the range of 20 to 40 milliseconds. This can be achieved by the gas generators embodied in any conventionally known manner, for example in the manner of conventional gas generators used for inflating automotive occupant restraint airbags and the like. Such a gas generator can be mechanically, electrically, or electro-mechanically triggered. Typically, such a gas generator uses a pyrotechnic charge for explosively generating the required inflation gas.
In the inflated deployed condition, especially with the person strapped securely to the load support element, the hollow conical body is configured and embodied so as to have a center of gravity substantially along a central axis thereof at a point below the center of aerodynamic drag. Thereby, the deployed apparatus in the form of a hollow conical body is aerodynamically stable and self-orienting so that it will always tend to descend in a nose-down attitude, i.e. with the point or narrower vertex end of the conical body oriented downward, e.g. in the manner of a badminton shuttlecock.
With the above described rapid inflation and total deployment of the hollow conical body, the apparatus is suitable for use for an evacuation descent from any altitude of at least 5 meters. In other words, a minimum altitude of 5 meters is required to ensure that the hollow conical body will become completely inflated and self-oriented in the nose-down attitude before the landing impact or touchdown on the ground.
The conical body, and particularly the cover skin together with the supporting spoke struts and the outer stabilizing ring, provide an aerodynamic braking drag effect that slows the descent and limits the descent to a maximum designed terminal velocity, e.g. preferably not greater than 8.5 m/sec (approximately 19 mph). The landing impact is then cushioned by the pneumatic damping body that acts as an airbag. The pneumatic damping body, and other inflatable components of the apparatus, can be equipped with over-pressure venting valves or rupturable venting membranes or the like, to vent gas out of these components in a controlled manner at a controlled rate during the impact, so as to pneumatically cushion, distribute over time, and dissipate the landing impact energy. Particularly, the overload at touchdown should be less than 15 units, the rate of increasing the G force load should be 200 units/sec, and the time of action of overloading should be not more than 0.5 sec.
The load support element preferably includes a load bearing frame that forms a backpack frame as described above. The load support element may further or alternatively comprise a load support platform that is arranged and secured on the upper surface of the pneumatic damping body and is provided with the securing elements such as straps and one or more buckles. Such a platform thus forms a backboard on which the other components are secured and mounted to form the stowed backpack configuration. This platform may be planar, or may be contoured to generally fit the contours of the person""s back. As a further alternative, the load support element may comprise a membrane in the manner of a soft, flexible, yet strong fabric that is arranged in or on or even slightly above the pneumatic damping body, and that may have the load bearing frame secured thereto.
In one advantageous embodiment, the pneumatic damping body comprises an inflatable spherical airbag or damping element, which forms the nose of the generally conical hollow body. In a second alternative advantageous embodiment, the pneumatic damping body comprises an inflatable conically tapering ring element, generally in the shape of an inflatable funnel, which forms the conically tapering nose of the generally conical hollow body.
As a further optional feature, to improve the stabilization, the conical hollow body can further comprise a second inner or lower inflatable stabilizing ring that is secured to the pneumatic damping body to form a part of the nose structure. In this case, the spoke struts extend between the inner lower stabilizing ring and the outer upper stabilizing ring. If necessary for achieving the required stability of the apparatus in the deployed condition in a particular application, it is further possible to provide one or more additional stabilizing rings between the upper and lower stabilizing rings, and it is additionally possible to provide inflatable cross-brace members spanning across the open diameter of the upper outer stabilizing ring (e.g. to ensure that the stabilizing ring maintains its open ring shape without collapsing or deforming).
The various components of the apparatus are made of any conventionally available suitable materials, which are especially strong, durable, and lightweight. The various inflatable components, e.g. the inflatable stabilizing ring, the inflatable spoke struts, and the inflatable pneumatic damping body, are made of a strong, but flexible gas-tight fabric, i.e. a fabric that is impermeable by the inflation gas. This fabric may be a single ply, or may be a multi-ply or multi-layer fabric, for example including a base fabric layer and a gas-tight coating layer thereon. The cover skin, including the cover skin portion on the conical aerodynamic braking drag arrangement and the cover skin portion on the pneumatic damping body, is made of a high strength fabric that is preferably also a high temperature heat resistant fabric able to withstand the temperatures of brief, direct flame contact. This fabric is substantially impermeable to air, but does not need to be completely airtight.
The load bearing frame is preferably made of a lightweight metal profile member, for example an aluminum alloy hollow tube having a round or angular cross-section, or an angle profile such as an L-profile. The membrane and other flexible load bearing elements of the load support structure are made of a high-strength fabric. The load support platform or backboard can be made of a fiber-reinforced composite or of a metal laminate, for example including a honeycomb core or the like. The several components are connected together by stitching, riveting, adhesive bonding, thermal lamination and bonding, or any other suitable conventionally known bonding or joining techniques.